Do you have to be a man to be in politics?
In spring 2007 before the national elections, a Turkish NGO called KA-DER started a highly visible and successful ad campaign to encourage more women to run for elected office and people to vote for women. The ads showed famous Turkish women wearing mustaches and asked, “Do you have to be a man to enter parliament?” At least 100 other NGOs joined the campaign.
The number of women elected in July 2007 doubled and they now make up 8% of parliament. Many associated this increase with KA-DER’s campaign. However, there were complaints afterwards that women candidates often were put at the bottom of the election lists and when elected were not given important positions.
KA-DER stands for Association to Educate and Support Women Candidates. Click here for their official website (in Turkish) and here for an English-language news article about the campaign.
these women are from kemalist elite and they are againist scarf in public sphere. you say “Many associated this increase with KA-DER’s campaign” but there is no data about this. the rise in percentage is about AKP’s policy of household votes. CHP women are petty bourgeoisie dolls with their master’s voice. dynamics of kemalist gender politics (look: Ayse Parla) is of modernizing without consent.